A common type of connector includes a front body with contact-holding passages, a rear body, and a shell that surrounds the bodies. A cable whose wire front ends are terminated to the rear ends of the contacts, extends through a passageway in the rear body and trails from the connector. The rear body can be filled with potting material around the cable to seal the connections to the contacts. However, when the potting material is injected from the rear of the rear body under pressure, the potting material tends to leak from the front of the rear body. Avoiding such leakage would be desirable.
A molded shell has a largely cylindrical surface that is grasped in a person""s hand to push the shell forwardly and pull it rearwardly during mating and unmating. It would be desirable if the shell indicated to a person where he should grasp the shell, and provide high friction against slippage of the person""s thumb with respect to the shell.
After the front and rear bodies are assembled around the cable, the body assembly is inserted forwardly into the shell and is latched therein by a pair of arms formed in a snap lock sleeve of the front body. The arms tend to break, and a construction that avoided such breakage would be of value.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a connector assembly is provided with pressure sealed potting material around the cable, with a grip around the shell that indicates how the shell should be held and which avoids slippage, and with rugged latch arms that latch the body assembly to the shell. The body assembly includes front and rear bodies that are joined together by a threaded connection, and with potting material injected under pressure into the passageway along which the cable extends through and out the rear of the connector. An O-ring lying immediately forward of the threaded connection, provides a seal against leakage of pressured potting material when the potting material is still flowable.
The shell is molded or cast and has an outside surface that avoids slippage. The outside surface has at least one ridge on one side of the axis, the ridge extending in a loop and including opposite sides that extend largely parallel to the axis of the shell and a rear rib portion that connects the sides and that projects further radially outward than most of the area of the shell outside surface. Additional ridges extending in smaller loops preferably lie within the larger loop. The opposite side of the shell is devoid of ridges. This encourages a person to hold the shell with his thumb against the ridges, and avoids slippage especially when the shell is pulled rearwardly to unmate the connector from another mating connector.
The front body has a pair latch arms with projections that snap into openings in the shell to latch the body assembly to the shell. The latch arms are made more robust by forming each of the slots that forms one latch arm, with opposite ends that are enlarged, and preferably with the enlargements at opposite sides of each latch arm projecting towards each other beyond the rest of the slot.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.